Joan Burrell Weaver, 88, of California, MD (formerly of Vienna, VA) passed away peacefully on March 23, 2021. She was born on February 3, 1933 in Washington D.C., to the late Donald W. Burrell and Ruth Morris Tabor.
At the young age of 18, she volunteered as a “junior hostess” for the USO for returning veterans. She also graduated from the prestigious (now defunct) Washington School for Secretaries in 1952. In 1953 she met the love of her life, Bill “Coach” Weaver after being introduced at a party through a friend at the infamous “Bayou” in Georgetown, DC. Her friend mentioned he was a “football player” at George Washington University. She went to see him at a game and was so impressed by how good he was, they began dating. The rest is history! After a whirlwind romance, Joan and Bill married in 1954, had their first child, Roy, in 1955 and second child Wendy, in 1957, and celebrated over 63 wonderful years together before his passing on March 24 (his birthday) in 2017.
Joan was an iconic figure for women of her generation in that she worked as a secretary and elementary school bus driver to help put her husband through college while raising two children. She was employed for many years by SBS using her secretarial skills in the beginning, then promoted to Technical Document Editor before her retirement with MCI as Executive Editor (now Verizon) after being relocated to Plano, Texas, in 2002. Joan and Bill were then moved back to Southern MD by her family in 2014.
Joan loved motorcycles (of which she drove herself for many years) and boating on the “Dream Weaver,” a 32-foot Marinette FBMY, which they received in 1985 after her devastating motorcycle accident in 1984. They shipped Dream Weaver to Lake Texoma in 2002 within bird’s eye view of Ross Perot’s estate.
Joan is survived by her children, Wendy Weaver of Hollywood, MD; William “Roy” Weaver of Berryville, VA; her grandchildren, Joseph (Joey) Roy Weaver and Kelley Lanelle Weaver; Linda Hatcher, her sister; her close friend and caretaker of seven years, Cheryl Morasch and extended family and friends. She is preceded in death by her parents, husband, and step-mother, Catherine Oyster Burrell.
Family requests memorial contributions be made in Joan’s memory to the USO www.uso.org
Condolences to the family may be made at www.brinsfieldfuneral.com.
Arrangements by the Brinsfield Funeral Home, P. A.
